San Diego Fire
It was a warm Sunday afternoon, the windows were open to catch the ocean breeze and I began to smell something. At first I thought someone was smoking a cigar in the alley that serves as access to our garage and divides our condo building from the one behind us. Curious, I went downstairs to the kitchen/family room where I could get a better view out a bigger window and asked my husband if he smelled it. He said he smelled wood smoke. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, he thought someone had their fireplace lit, but I pointed out that no one builds a fire on an 85 degree day and given that we were having Santa Ana winds, it could be only one thing......wildfire.
We've lived through many fire seasons in Southern California, so we turned on the news to see where it was located and if we should have any concerns. The fire most likely to have an effect on us, the Witch Creek fire, was over an hour's drive away so we went out to dinner and figured we'd catch up on its progress the next morning. As we left our daughter's house after dinner, we noticed that ash was falling like a light snow so we knew the wind had to be blowing pretty hard and that this fire had the potential for spreading rapidly much as the one of October 2003. Still, we went to bed. At 4:30 AM one of our smoke alarms beeped twice. Not sure why. Unable to sleep, I turned on the local news to see how things had progressed and was stunned at how far the fire had moved during only a few hours. In addition, a smaller fire had started near our son's home in the San Marcos area around 25 miles north of us. I watched the news for a bit more than an hour, wondering if I should call my son to see if he had received an evacuation notice. Then, one news report said that those people who used only cell phones in their homes would not be notified of an emergency using the local "Reverse 911" system. I began dialing my phone.
At 6:00 AM, Monday morning, my son and his wife began packing and a bit over 2 hours later they were on the road and heading south to stay at our place. All day long we watched news reports, especially those that dealt with the fire in San Marcos and the westward spread of the Witch Creek fire. Our son's neighborhood was in a transitional zone where it was never really clear whether or not it was in a mandatory or voluntary evacuation area, however, their decision to evacuate and stay with us was based on the possibility that the north/south routes through San Diego County could close at any time. We were never overly worried that their place would burn, but with 70 mph winds, anything can happen.
Our daughter and her husband stayed at their home and remained vigilant throughout the day. They live in an area near that which burned four years ago and also near a canyon very attractive to wildfire moving rapidly toward the coastline. Oddly, they were never even designated as a voluntary evacuation zone, even though they were surrounded on three sides by mandatory zones. It was a smoky night at their place, but they were never in any danger.
Where my husband and I live, we never even had the high winds. We're in a very sheltered spot near La Jolla and the wind splits as it nears us and rushes down the canyon leading to Torrey Pines as well as the one toward Pacific Beach. We opened our home to our son, his wife and their three cats and were preparing to take in our daughter, her husband, three cats and their snake. In the end we were just four adults and four cats.
I think this is one of the largest wildfires I've ever experienced. Looking at a map, I realized that a combination of the burn and evacuation areas of all the fires easily covered half of San Diego County. Over 500,000 people were under mandatory evacuation and many others, like our son and his wife, left their homes even though evacuation was only voluntary.
All day on Tuesday we again watched news reports to see if the firefighters would gain control over these fires of if the weather would change enough to alter wind patterns and somehow halt the rapid progress of the fires as they made their way west to the Pacific Ocean. Earlier in the week, predictions were for little or no relief until Wednesday or Thursday, but early Tuesday morning, some coastal areas were seeing signs of a returning see breeze. At our home, we had no wind and a return of cool temperatures with our usual morning humidity. Then, by Tuesday afternoon, the wind began to change, many evacuation orders were lifted and some people began returning to their neighborhoods.
It's Wednesday morning we awoke to news that some progress has been made in slowing down or even halting the westward progression of the fires and many neighborhoods are open for residents to return to their homes. Others, however, are being evacuated, this time on the eastern edge of the fires. Some fires are even combining as they burn closer to each other. There are also new fires erupting on Camp Pendleton Marine Base and the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 are closed. This has caused a huge backup of traffic that has to detour east on state route 78 through San Marcos for access to northbound I-15. We also learned from looking at the official county disaster map that our son's home is now included in a mandatory evacuation area so he and his family will be staying with us a bit longer.
The latest weather reports are optimistic. Santa Ana winds are abating and by Friday the marine layer, that high level of fog we get every evening, will be returning.
We've lived through many fire seasons in Southern California, so we turned on the news to see where it was located and if we should have any concerns. The fire most likely to have an effect on us, the Witch Creek fire, was over an hour's drive away so we went out to dinner and figured we'd catch up on its progress the next morning. As we left our daughter's house after dinner, we noticed that ash was falling like a light snow so we knew the wind had to be blowing pretty hard and that this fire had the potential for spreading rapidly much as the one of October 2003. Still, we went to bed. At 4:30 AM one of our smoke alarms beeped twice. Not sure why. Unable to sleep, I turned on the local news to see how things had progressed and was stunned at how far the fire had moved during only a few hours. In addition, a smaller fire had started near our son's home in the San Marcos area around 25 miles north of us. I watched the news for a bit more than an hour, wondering if I should call my son to see if he had received an evacuation notice. Then, one news report said that those people who used only cell phones in their homes would not be notified of an emergency using the local "Reverse 911" system. I began dialing my phone.
At 6:00 AM, Monday morning, my son and his wife began packing and a bit over 2 hours later they were on the road and heading south to stay at our place. All day long we watched news reports, especially those that dealt with the fire in San Marcos and the westward spread of the Witch Creek fire. Our son's neighborhood was in a transitional zone where it was never really clear whether or not it was in a mandatory or voluntary evacuation area, however, their decision to evacuate and stay with us was based on the possibility that the north/south routes through San Diego County could close at any time. We were never overly worried that their place would burn, but with 70 mph winds, anything can happen.
Our daughter and her husband stayed at their home and remained vigilant throughout the day. They live in an area near that which burned four years ago and also near a canyon very attractive to wildfire moving rapidly toward the coastline. Oddly, they were never even designated as a voluntary evacuation zone, even though they were surrounded on three sides by mandatory zones. It was a smoky night at their place, but they were never in any danger.
Where my husband and I live, we never even had the high winds. We're in a very sheltered spot near La Jolla and the wind splits as it nears us and rushes down the canyon leading to Torrey Pines as well as the one toward Pacific Beach. We opened our home to our son, his wife and their three cats and were preparing to take in our daughter, her husband, three cats and their snake. In the end we were just four adults and four cats.
I think this is one of the largest wildfires I've ever experienced. Looking at a map, I realized that a combination of the burn and evacuation areas of all the fires easily covered half of San Diego County. Over 500,000 people were under mandatory evacuation and many others, like our son and his wife, left their homes even though evacuation was only voluntary.
All day on Tuesday we again watched news reports to see if the firefighters would gain control over these fires of if the weather would change enough to alter wind patterns and somehow halt the rapid progress of the fires as they made their way west to the Pacific Ocean. Earlier in the week, predictions were for little or no relief until Wednesday or Thursday, but early Tuesday morning, some coastal areas were seeing signs of a returning see breeze. At our home, we had no wind and a return of cool temperatures with our usual morning humidity. Then, by Tuesday afternoon, the wind began to change, many evacuation orders were lifted and some people began returning to their neighborhoods.
It's Wednesday morning we awoke to news that some progress has been made in slowing down or even halting the westward progression of the fires and many neighborhoods are open for residents to return to their homes. Others, however, are being evacuated, this time on the eastern edge of the fires. Some fires are even combining as they burn closer to each other. There are also new fires erupting on Camp Pendleton Marine Base and the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 are closed. This has caused a huge backup of traffic that has to detour east on state route 78 through San Marcos for access to northbound I-15. We also learned from looking at the official county disaster map that our son's home is now included in a mandatory evacuation area so he and his family will be staying with us a bit longer.
The latest weather reports are optimistic. Santa Ana winds are abating and by Friday the marine layer, that high level of fog we get every evening, will be returning.
posted by Jackie | 12:10 AM
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